Good stuff, see you in a few weeks

I just imported the route into harming base camp and split the track in to sections. My Dakota can handle 999 track points so I just have 3 tracks for the entire route. You will need a few more. There are other ways to do the same thing.

I'm getting all excited about this race now. Should be fun I've never been round the Highlands on my MTB before so its all going to be new to me. I will be packing a camera.

Can't see a thread on here as yet so thought I'd draw people's attention to the England-Wales-England (EWE) race that started yesterday. It's a 1280 miles route created by Aidan Harding and as he puts it "we don’t do giant empty dirt roads, but we do do engaging and challenging mountain biking. We do crazy weather. We do more remote than some people would think possible on a crowded little island". Only three guys have set off. Whilst not as long as the TD, I'm sure it will prove to be a hard event as we've had and continue to have a proper wet summer! Sure they will be sick of mud and sleeping in the rain by the end!

More information can be found on Aidan's website http://www.aidanharding.com/ewe/ and the event is being tracked http://trackleaders.com/ewe. As an aside, all three guys are running the soon to be released Exposure Revo Dynamo light http://www.exposurelights.com/news/000147/. Sounds like a good set up for multi-day rides.

Good question about tires. I know he is using 25c Michelin krylion carbon, or the new version of them. If were doing it I'd want 28c versions but they don't make them. But Mike swears by the comfort of a carbon frame.

I like Mike's bike setup. He's opted for the disc brake and carbon route. He's using an On-one dirty disco carbon frame and has gone for Reynolds Assault Carbon Disc wheels with a mostly Ultegra group.

Mike is a bit of a monster! He was up with the leaders on the TD last year for a week or so, then got injured and dropped back.

These guys have no support but the current record holder was supported for about half the trip. As for funding, its a good sponsorship opportunity but will take a lot of money. A previous record holder, Von Cox, spent about £20,000 ($30,000).

Sounds like you need to convert the files from routes to tracks in basecamp. Then try uploading them again to the Oregon, they should be there. Also make sure you have clicked the upload tracks tick box in the upload pop up.

In case anyone missed this. On the 18th February 2012, Ten riders set off from London to race 18,000 miles around the world in what has been described as ‘Arguably the Longest, toughest, adventure race in the world’. With the goal of winning the race and hopefully claiming the ultimate prize of a new Guinness World Record.

Currently the fastest circumnavigation by bicycle is 96 days, 10 hours and 33 minutes, and was achieved by Alan Bate (UK) who cycled a distance of 29,467.91 km (18,310.47 mi) and travelled over 42,608.76 km (26,475.8 mi) in total (including transfers).

I've been a little hoked on little track leader blue dots since the 18th. There is a long way to go and everyone is taking a different route and while the race is still anybodies there are some early leaders appearing with back to back 250 mile days.

Watch the dots here: http://worldcycleracing.com/live-tracking/

FeffOYB, can't talk about riding anything as long as the divide but when doing any long Audax ride (300-1400km) I've found that spending as little time as possible faffing means you finish much quicker! You are right, as soon as you stop and someone passes you, the only way to catch them again to hope that they stop. On a 400km ride I try to stop for only a little over 30 mins in total, that makes a big difference on overall time. If your not moving, you're not getting any closer to the finish.

But taking that approach and keeping it going for 17+ days, well that's something else!

Some great photos. It gives someone siting on the other side of the Atlantic a real feel for the landscape and event.

Seems like Matthew Lee made it to the border some 17 minutes ago. 17.16.13 since the start.